School Shootings On The Rise: Why Are They Happening?

March 3, 2018

by Victor Dawson

Over the past 10 years, there has been an unprecedented number of school shootings that have taken place, causing outrage from a wide variety of people. It seems as if almost everyone believes they have the right solution to stopping these massacres that so often include innocent children.

As a result of the spiking number of school shootings, which, according to a Harvard Health study, has now averaged about three per week since the start of the new year, President Donald Trump has recently proposed the idea that teachers should be given bonuses if they know how to use a firearm to protect their students if a dangerous situation were to present itself.

While Trump may have had his own idea on how to protect students, students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 students were killed two weeks ago, gathered with politicians for what turned out to be an emotional Town Hall meeting to discuss what precautions should be taken going forward in order to prevent shootings just like the Florida one.

Although so many students and parents came forward to discuss the issues surrounding gun control, the Town Hall proved that not everyone agrees on the best way to stop these tragedies from happening.

Still, one of the most common sayings from an older generation is claiming that it “wasn’t like that when we were in school.”

In fact, it was, but someone who didn’t take the time to read up on the statistics wouldn’t know that.

It is believed that from the late 1980’s to the early 1990’s, the U.S. saw a sharp increase in gun violence in schools, according to a survey conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health. That same study founded that 15 percent of people said that they had carried a handgun and four percent said that they had taken a handgun to school in the past year. The study concluded that, by 1993, the U.S. saw “some of the most violent times in school shooting incidences.”

Ultimately, there are many reasons school shootings are taking place. The first reason that should be examined is video games. The spike in violent games from the past three decades could be part of the problem because of the violence being displayed through a game console. This has been a go-to answer for decades, especially with games such as Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto or Halo being sold around the country.

Besides that, another possible reason is that kids with mental health issues aren’t receiving the proper treatment they need. The news could also play a factor into this, as it constantly projects violent images, giving other kids vindictive ideas.

Despite so many different reasons and opinions, no one can really be wrong when speaking their mind on this sensitive issue, as this epidemic has been haunting the country for over 30 years.

Truth is, there isn’t just one right answer to this issue. People shouldn’t be budding heads and pointing fingers about who’s right or wrong; they should be coming together to find a solution.